Meeting & Agendas

Members identified their role and why they are committed to participating on the CDP advisory board.Review handout of the purpose and responsibilities of the advisory committee.

Stacey and Sandra shared the vision of the CDP to produce highly-qualified workforce to improve the quality of care for children in the community. CDP has array of courses to intensively target the needs of child care. Sandra reviewed the ACC student 'poster' feedback information (My Best Professors Have Helped Me by...) and led discussion on how that information might be used to accommodate the needs of our students . Discussion also was had on the barriers that our students have in pursuing HE.

Stacey reviewed the changes in the reading and writing requirements (TSI) requirements for certificate. Brief discussion of the potential impact (pros/cons) as a result of new rule. Review of the updated 60 credit AAS. Review of the stackable curriculum. Discussion of the CDA course substitution credited hours if move on to certificate. Discussion on the Academic CDA with dilemma of not being able to track these students in the current ACC data b/c Institutional Certificate is combined with allother certificate data. Advisory committee values the stackable curriculum.

NAEYC ECCADA- will have to align courses with new NAEYC standards which have changed from 5 to 6 standards. Will need to revise Master Syllabi. Will report on for next Adv. Bd. Meeting. Program overview data-number of ECADA prg. in Texas and US. Data on number of completers for AAS, Cert, CDA. Total # observation hours for each degree. Input requested from Advisory Bd. on what skill sets needed to be taught in observation in response to workforce needs. Information included @ end of minutes. Expansion of courses to other regions of the ACC district. ACTION REQUEST: Proposed expansion of courses to the north (Cypress Creek campus) because of high number of centers in the Travis/Williamson co area. Melissa Curtis moved to approve the proposal to offer courses at Cypress Creek campus. Lynne Kirby seconded motion. Motion carried unanimously. Review of course delivery options. Total hybrid courses, day & evening courses. Discussion regarding challenges of offering courses every semester because they don't have full registration numbers. Advisory bd. values options for course offerings and encourages the development of more hybrid/online courses. Retiring and new instructors- introduce new adjuncts (via bio). Dept. data - Gale reviewed the Data Dashboard for Fall 14 to give general overview of program data. More in-depth, population specific data sets will be provided at next meeting at ACC. Enrollment data and ideas for increasing enrollment discussed. Marketing ideas- the website, at conferences,and developing at-a-glance degree plans to disseminate. Patsy reviewed the CDA program and the process to completion of the national credential. Patsy presented on the 8 areas covered in the CDA.There was discussion of why the CDEC 1318 wasn't included in the Academic CDA since wellness and safety were part of the CDA topics. Further review will be done to assess how much time was devoted to wellness in existing courses in the Academic CDA. Advisory board members have more clarity on what is entailed in earning a CDA. Dawn gave an update on the Lab School. The CCAMPIS grant, nutrition internship meal project, and role of the staff with supporting student learning. Gale reviewed the competencies for Practicum II. Stacey and faculty shared the need for quality observation sites (NAEYC) to place students who don't observe at the lab school. Discussion regardingthe benefits of students observing in an NAEYC accredited site or not. Advisory board discussed pros/cons of seeing quality and observing at site that may need improvement. No decisions made at this time. Faculty shared the barrier for students to fulfill observation requirements when having toleave workplace to observe. Students report that directors are often not supportive of givingtime off to observe off-site or on-site. Students have to take vacation/sick leave to complete fieldwork. Discussion about reducing the fieldwork hours, but negated because of the importance of seeing and participating hand­ on with the real-practices.Faculty requested childcare directors to support student education needs. The CDP will conduct a director survey of community childcare centers to identify how best to resolve issues regarding fieldwork/ attending classes on time.

Update on the funding for the Amanda Hernandez scholarship and the current recipient, Karina Castro.

Proposed short andlong term goals for the department were evaluated with Advisory Board emphasis on recruitment, completion and retention. Faculty shared with Advisory Board the challenge of expediting student completion while still supporting their workplace and family needs. Suggestions from Advisory Board included offering courses during naptimes so students could attend during the day and not be impacted by evening fatigue or family commitments; offering more online courses; reconsidering observation options/requirements for specific courses that have students leave workplace to do fieldwork.

OBSERVATION SKILL SETS: Objective, detailed, variety of observation strategies, reflections, focused listening skills, focus on group dynamics and individual children simultaneously.